Is travel insurance worth it?

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There are plenty of last minute travel deals for the end of summer. Before you book, stop to think if you need travel insurance. We talked to Derek Wing, PEMCO communications manager. He says any trip worth $5,000 or more should be covered. Another big thing to consider is whether you are heading outside the country.

"In foreign countries, your health insurance might not be honored," says Wing. "In a worst case scenario, if you need to be flown home, the cost of that for a medical emergency flight could be somewhere in the neighborhood of $100,000."

Typically there are three types of travel insurance to pick from. The first is for interruption or delay. That covers you if you get sick before a trip, or if a loved one passes away and you need to cancel. Next, there is coverage for medical expenses or transportation. That's if you get sick while you're on your trip. The last kind of coverage is travel assistance, which can come in handy if you lose your passport.

Policies can cost anywhere between four and ten percent of your trip. But no matter what you pick, read the fine print. "In some cases, you can't get travel insurance or you won't be covered if you have a pre-existing medical condition," says Wing.

So is travel insurance worth it? Wing says yes if you are heading abroad, taking an expensive trip, or one that's complex. If you make a lot of stops, there's a greater chance that something will go wrong.